Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry is the first game in the Devil May Cry series featuring the main playable character - Dante, a son of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda

The game opens with a cutscene where a woman named Trish shows up. The game is set entirely in and around a castle where both Trish and Dante go to on Mallet Island.

Development
Devil May Cry started life as the first version of Resident Evil 4. Game director Hideki Kamiya's goal for this new Resident Evil game was to be on fast, stylish combat. However, during development, the combat system strayed too far from the survival horror concept, and series producer Shinji Mikami convinced Hideki Kamiya and the rest of the development team to make the project into an entirely new game.

Gameplay
Being the first of the series, Devil May Cry introduced a host of new elements to the gaming community. Chief among them is the Stylish Rank, which grades the player's performance in combat. The game itself is split into Missions, which are individually scored according to various factors, such as Orbs gathered and damage taken. Additionally, Devil May Cry did away with the pre-rendered backgrounds of prior Resident Evil games in order to allow for a dynamic camera system.

Other innovations include the Devil Trigger, which increases Dante's combat effectiveness; the orb system, where killing enemies with a high style rank yields higher amounts of orbs; Red Orbs in general, which act as the game's currency to buy abilities and items; and others.

Plot
Devil May Cry begins with Dante being attacked in his office by a mysterious woman named Trish. He impresses her by easily brushing off her assault, and tells her that he hunts demons in pursuit of those who killed his mother and brother. She says the attack was a test, and that the demon emperor Mundus, whom Dante holds responsible for the deaths of his family, is planning a return. The scene jumps to their arrival at an immense castle, whereupon Trish abruptly leaps and vanishes over a high wall.

Dante explores the castle and encounters the game's stock enemies, demonic Marionettes. He also finds a new sword called Alastor, and battles the first boss, a giant spider demon named Phantom. Dante wins the battle, but in what becomes a recurring theme, the defeated boss monster reappears a short time later in a corridor, forcing the player to choose a narrow escape or to fight in the tight confines. After further exploration and combat, Dante battles a demon named Nelo Angelo, who impresses Dante with his confidence. The demon wins, but suddenly flees upon seeing the half of an amulet Dante wears. The demon attacks twice more in later missions, and is eventually revealed to be Dante's identical twin brother, Vergil. After Vergil's final defeat, his amulet joins with his brother's half, and "Force Edge", the game's default sword which belonged to the twins' father, becomes the powerful Sparda sword.

When Dante next meets Trish, she betrays him and reveals that she too is working for Mundus. But when her life is endangered, Dante chooses to save her. Saying he only did so because of her resemblance to his mother, he warns her to stay away. Yet when he finally confronts Mundus, who is about to kill Trish for his plan, Dante again chooses to save her and is injured. Mundus tries to finish him off, but Trish takes the attack instead. Dante becomes enraged and unleashes his full power, a power that was inherited by Sparda. In the cutscenes, the statue starts to crack as it glows to release inside of it, Mundus spread his wings to shape the background into a dimension that he transports Dante into it. Dante questions the reason of creating Trish while Mundus rethorically answers that he could create anything, just like he created Trish for his plot to weaken Dante. With a mighty imperative word to silent the Demon Emperor, Mundus flies up to the clouds just to lure Dante. He transforms into Sparda´s form as the epic battle begins.

Dante is victorious, and leaves the amulet and sword with Trish's immobile body before departing. Later Mundus returns and corners Dante, who is now greatly weakened, before he can flee the island; but Trish comes in time and lends Dante her power. Dante defeats Mundus, who vows to return and rule the human world. When Trish tries to apologize she begins to cry, and Dante tells her it means she has become human and not just a devil, because "devils never cry". Dante and Trish escape on a plane as the island collapses. After the credits, it is revealed that Dante and Trish are working together as partners, and have renamed the shop "Devil Never Cry".

Difficulty Modes
Devil May Cry is known for its unforgiving difficulty. There are four modes in total: Easy, Normal, Hard and Dante Must Die, with each one increasingly in difficulty. Players start on Normal mode, and can unlock the others after playing the game.

Dante
This is a default costume used in the game

The Legendary Dark Knight
Unlocked after clearing Hard Mode. The player assumes the role of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, replacing Dante with his father in every cutscene as well. Unlike Dante, this costume starts out with a Devil Arm, Yamato, and thus, can even activate Devil Trigger at the beginning of the game and the character´s shadow shows Sparda´s demonic form. Yamato operates exactly like Alastor, however so it appears to be more of a model swap other than a new weapon. The same goes for Ebony and Ivory, which has been changed to Luce & Ombra, respectively. In Devil Trigger mode, this costume will always take on the demonic form of Sparda and the Devil Arm will turn into his namesake weapon, no matter what Devil Arm is equipped, but the abilities of the current Devil Trigger utilized remain the same. The save portrait used is Sparda wielding his namesake weapon.

Super Dante
Unlocked after clearing Dante Must Die mode. This costume is identical to Dante in appearance, but the player now has unlimited Devil Trigger, enabling indefinite time periods in Devil Trigger. The Nightmare Beta will also not drain the DT gauge as well. His portrait is the same as Dante's but with an electrical aura surrounding his body.

Awards
In the edition packaged with the Devil May Cry HD Collection, players can unlock PS3 Trophies and Xbox 360 Achievements for their exploits.